Mom Jobs

Like I said yesterday, I desire to work in order to pay off my mortgage quicker. But I'm not willing to spend a lot of time away from my Sweet Baby James. And paying babysitters to watch your kid while you work is EXPENSIVE! [Can I hear an amen?]

So what to do?

Here are some jobs I've tried in the past/am currently trying. This is not an exhaustive list of job opportunities, by any means, but it may be of some help to you.

Mary Kay Consultant - I used to be active in the Mary Kay company before mommyhood. It was a great job. Really! It was super easy to make $100/hour and it was fun to go have girl-time and laughter while making money. My biggest reasons for not continuing is that A) I don't want to be away from my son and husband at night and that was my best time to do parties B) I'm not taking care of my skin anymore and it shows. Mentally, I can't imagine trying to tell women they should take care of themselves when clearly I am not doing it myself. Rather sad, yes?

Day Care Worker - Working at Kids 1st was a blast. I worked there until my due date and contemplated working there after James' birth. But there are a few foreseeable problems with this. The first is that although they are INCREDIBLY GENEROUS to allow employees to take breaks every 2 hours to breastfeed, it has to be scheduled. And my child wanted to nurse more often than that. If you feel that nursing on demand is important, well tough luck sister. Cloth diapering would not have been possible either since licensed daycare facilities don't do it. Also, if I would've stayed there in my spot in the 2's room, I would've spent the entire day looking out my door across the hall to the baby room where my son would be. Not actually getting to bond with him, just looking at him from a distance. Not fun. Financially it wouldn't have helped me much because HALF of my paycheck would have gone BACK to the daycare. (Yes, they charge the employees for using the daycare.)

Nannying/Babysitting - This is by far my favorite job. Since the birth of James I have nannied for 2 different families. This can be tricky because it's a big relationship between you, your child, the children you babysit and the parents of the child you babysit. There's a TON of factors to consider, such as: How many kids can you realistically watch including your own? Does your child's personality mesh well with the other children? How many hours a week are you comfortable working and how many hours do the parents need? Where are you going to babysit, in your own home or theirs? Are you willing to drive with the kids to practices, playdates, etc.? Despite all the work it requires to figure this all out, when you find a great family and develop a relationship with them that works well for all involved, babysitting can be the most spectacular job. And MAJOR BONUS: You still get to be with your child all day.

Delivering Newspapers - On Wednesdays I deliver a newspaper called "The Accent" which is the free version of the News-Gazette. This is a fantastic job because it isn't scheduled for you--as long as you get the paper delivered by 7pm every Wednesday you get paid for it. My typical routine is to get up early on Wednesdays and put James in a stroller and do half of the route, (1 hour 15 minutes). Then I put the route on pause, go babysit (which is a stone's throw away from my route) and after my day of babysitting the Mom I nanny for babysits James while I do the other half of the route (1 hour). If I did this all in one chunk, sans kid, it would only take 2 hours. This doesn't pay extremely well since there are very few hours involved, but it is really good exercise!

Now it's your turn. Do you have any [legit] part-time job ideas? Do you have ideas about how to work with your child in tow or finding inexpensive childcare?

1 comments:

libbygirl said...

My husband tutors on line for Tutor.com. You do have to have a four year degree but you can schedule your own hours.